Organizations such as lending libraries make recorded media such as CDs and DVDs available to their patrons and then re-stock the media when it is returned. The act of accepting and re-stocking the media may be as simple as placing a container containing the media back on the shelf or it may be as complicated as reading (playing a music CD for example) the media to make certain that it is proper. As a compromise, for the sake of efficiency, lending libraries have placed adhesive RFID labels on the media being loaned and read the label through the container to make sure that the appropriate media is in the container before re-stocking. Equivalent problems and solutions are used for the sellers of recorded media who accept returns of their products for refund.
It has been discovered that some library patrons or returning customers make copies of the recorded media and return the copy to the library or seller. Some people have even been known to return an un-recorded CD or DVD in hopes of keeping the original without the inconvenience of providing a copy for subsequent borrowers or purchasers. Those people who attempt to keep the original recorded media have even learned to remove RFID labels from the original CD or DVD and re-adhere them to the blank or copy they are returning; thus, thwarting the RFID label reading of returned media. That is, when a returned blank CD has been modified to include the original RFID label, an RFID scan will detect the blank as an original and the library or seller will be harmed. Thus, a problem exists to produce a system for loaned or exchanged goods which can efficiently determine whether returned items are the originals.